Topic: Goal of life

Disciple: Srila Prabhupada, once you said, “The tractor—this is the cause of all the trouble. It took all the young men’s farm work. It forced them to go into the city and become entangled in sensuality.” You said people had to leave the country and the simple life of goodness and God consciousness. And so they went to the city and got caught up in the anxious life, the mode of passion.
Srila...

Disciple: Srila Prabhupada, in a recent study by U.S. agricultural officials, they found that it’s uneconomical to eat meat. It takes so much energy and man hours to raise and transport and slaughter the cows that it’s very wasteful.
Srila Prabhupada: Wasteful, yes. Therefore I say they have no brain. They are all rascals. Rascal leaders. A little labor in agriculture will be sufficient to...

Srila Prabhupada would sometimes refer to his disciples as pure devotees. Anyone who has read his books or been in the company of his followers for any length of time knows that the term “pure devotee” generally refers to someone who loves Krishna fully and is free of all material desires. It’s who we want to become. So we ordinary mortals who are surely still works in progress wonder, “Why would...

(edited for clarity)
19 October 1975, Johannesburg, South Africa
Indian man: Don't you think the people (in South Africa) are lazy?
Prabhupada: Why aren't you lazy here? It is the government's policy or government's management. You see? To become lazy is the recommendation of the shastra. "Lazy" has become a bad word, but actually real life means to not work very hard. Working hard (only) for...